Chima and Salinas: Ultimate Couch Potatoes

When Langley was here as a foster dog that meant we had to do a lot of "crate and rotate" with the foster dogs - meaning that while Langley was out, Chima and Sal were crated and vice versa. It's an important management technique when you have a fear reactive dog in the house like Langley and keeps things safe as well as helping make sure that Langley could effectively work on his counter conditioning. I needed to make sure that being around other dogs was a great experience for him.

However, it's not a fun state of affairs for anyone. The dogs don't get as much free time as they want, the humans have the extra work to make sure that everyone is getting a fair amount of time and attention and exercise, and there is also just an underlying stress of worrying that I might mess up and let an interaction happen that wouldn't end in a postitive way.

Happily, now that Langley is adopted and an only dog he is doing great and actually is much better able to play happily with other dogs in small doses. It's the 24/7 of living with them that was just too much.

The other great news though, is that Salinas and Chima are getting to be uncrated during the day while I am home with them. This has made for dramatic changes in how they interact with Troy and I and we couldn't be more pleased.

Before they got all this free time they would bark at Troy anytime he came in a room. Since he wasn't around as much, they found him scary and this has given them a better chance to hang out with Troy at their own comfort level rather than seeing him as the scary guy who entered a room while they were stuck in a crate. The result? During the recent thunderstorm when I was at work Salinas sought out Troy for comfort and put her head on his lap for pets. When he stopped she nosed his hand letting him know that she wouldn't say no to a little more petting.

Chima, closer but still keeping her distance

Most exciting for me has been Chima's new found desire for couch time. In the past if she wanted to kick back it was always on a dog bed on the floor. This gave her some comfort but also some distance from the humans. But now that she's had more time to watch me and follow me around, she's decided that hanging out on the couch with Frodo and Salinas and I while I work on the laptop is mighty enjoyable. Since I do a lot of my rescue correspondence and paperwork stuff on my laptop - it gives us plenty of time to hang out in a way that Chima finds safe and rewarding. At first she was always at the far end of the couch from me (and Salinas was as close to me as possible.) Now though, Chima often chooses to curl up next to my legs or even lay across the top of my legs/feet. This is huge for a girl who initially hated any kind of physical contact.

Chima, deciding it's safe to be the dog closest to me on the couch

Chima, somehow finding it comfortable to lie on top of my feet

One of these days people will take a chance on these very special girls. It will take someone who is willing to be patient and let them adapt at their own pace, but that patience will be repaid tenfold.